THE SEX SCENE
Originally, I wanted to make a film about prostitution where you don't see or know what's actually going on behind the closed doors. But to exclude a sex scene from WHORES' GLORY would have meant excluding a major topic. It was clear that I wouldn't be able to film secretly or without the consent of all parties. I shot a sex scene only in Mexico for practical reasons. The girls in Thailand probably would not have minded but the local censorship bureau would have, and in Bangladesh, this would be out of the question... What's interesting about the sex scene is that everything between the flirtatious worker and the customer changes the second the door is closed. Their exchange becomes immediately businesslike without being harsh or brutal. Even when the time is up, she's strict but remains friendly: "Goodbye, come back when you have more money... sweetheart."

LA ZONA DE LA TOLERANCIA
Everybody in La Zona of Reynosa (900,000-inhabitant city near the Texas border) does drugs, especially crack. It's a place controlled by an organization called Las Zetas, loosely related to the Camorra. They are in the middle of a bitter drug war with the Mexican Military. Access to drugs is very easy in this somewhat lawless zone. Locally, it is known as "La Zona de la tolerancia". Many of the working girls go there not only to work as prostitutes, they often try to escape the law for every reason imaginable. One of them being heavy drug use. As long as they stay inside nobody will bother them. The entrance to La Zona is protected by barriers and is constantly monitored by the police.

BEAUTY IN THE MOST TRAGIC MOMENTS
In La Zona, it's not a question of hope or hopelessness, because everybody hopes for something different. The world will never be a better place because people do only good things to each other. There is beauty in the most tragic moments and there is aggression and boredom in the ordinary. There is hope in war and war in hope. Films that offer resolutions are nothing but bad art, because they cannot truly explore the diversity of the human soul.